SomA fortnight after seven North Hykeham players
helped East Midlands win the National Regions Title
at Lichfield they were back in action as their club
side competed in the National Under 15 7 a side tournament
at Leighton Buzzard R.F.C. on Saturday afternoon.
The short sided version of the game is ideally suited
to the North Hykeham playing style of pass before contact
and making the use of the pace of the likes Rachel Jones,
Laura Ware and Tanya Bird in the wide open spaces that
the game creates.
The tournament was split into four pools with four
teams in each. The winners and runners up of each pool
progressed to the quarter finals for the knock stages
of the competition.
The pool games saw North Hykeham pitted against Waterloo,
Reading and Aylestone St James. The team won all three
games comfortably scoring 99 points in the process beating
Aylestone 43 - 0, Reading 32 - 0 and Waterloo 24 - 0.
Importantly the points were being scored across the
whole team with Hannah Newsome, Laura Ware, Rachel Jones,
Tanya Bird, Katie Hopkinson, Paula Smith and Carla Clubb
all scoring tries.
The quarter finals saw them play Basford and against
they ran out winners without conceding a point 26 -
0 with tries from Carla, Laura and a brace from Rachel
who also made good two drop kick conversions.
The semi final was against London Irish and in a tight
game North Hykeham came through by the narrow margin
of 12 points to 10, Laura scoring both tries and Rachel
drop kicking a conversion.
The final against Exeter Saracens showed the spirit
of the North Hykeham girls as playing into the wind
and up the slope they conceded two first half tries
to allow the opposition to take a 10 point lead into
the break. This was the first time in the competition
they had found themselves behind in a game. However
due to good chasing back the Exeter tries were scored
in the corners making the conversions almost impossible.
The second half saw North Hykeham play with the wind
and slope and tries from Carla and Rachel plus one drop
kick gave them the National Title by 12 points to 10,
showing just how important the chasing back in the first
half eventually proved.
The North Hykeham squad was - Carla Clubb, Paula Smith,
Katie Smith, Emma Orrey, Becky Lockwood, Jade O ' Shaughnessy,
Tanya Bird, Laura Ware, Rachel Jones, Hannah Newsome,
Katie Hopkinson and Emily Monds with Melissa Kelly as
a non playing travelling reserve.
The club “End Of Season Dinner " at the
Bentley Hotel on the 30th May will be a most enjoyable
evening for the girls who can been proud of what they
have achieved. This has been an excellent season for
them. As well as helping to win the regional title and
winning the National 7's they were also awarded North
Hykeham Town Council Mayors “Community Award “for
2008. Of 13 club games played the team won 11 losing
just two games and in the process has a point’s
difference of 380 to 161
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